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BlogDecember 2012

​Last time we told you a bit about the history of CCDC numbers and looked to their future, (“Who Wants to be a Millionaire?”) but what about that other well known CCDC identifier, the refcode?

Firstly, what IS a refcode? Put simply, it’s a 6 letter code which corresponds to an entry in the Cambridge Structural Database (CSD). Refcodes have been used since the beginning of CSD, so pre-date CCDC numbers. But there are also considerable benefits in using refcodes alongside CCDC numbers as identifiers.

How important is solubility? Well, if like me you enjoy a sugar in your coffee, the answer is “pretty important”. In order for the sugar to be able to reach my taste-buds in adequate concentration to achieve that welcome sensation of sweetness, the sugar needs to be soluble enough in hot milky water. So too, for a successful drug, which, like the sugar, must dissolve and then reach a site of action in sufficient quantity to elicit a pharmacological response. Solubility is taken very seriously by pharmaceutical scientists.

Our hearty congratulations go to CCDC Ph.D. student Danny Vatvani, who was one of the three winners of the Kate Burt Prize at the recent Royal Society of Chemistry and Molecular Graphics and Modelling Society Young Modellers Forum, held in London. This is a tremendous achievement for a very bright young scientist.

​We were all very proud, here in Cambridge, to hear the news that CCDC Governor, Professor Reiko Kuroda of the Tokyo University of Science, is to be honoured as one of the five 2013 L’Oreal-UNESCO Women in Science Laureates.